One Tough Journey
by Nik1627
Summary: It all started when our great heroes,the great seven ( Or should I say nine?) were finished with their battle. Gaea was finally put back into her slumber for eternity. The seven had returned back to finally live a peaceful life. Or so one of them thought... [Rated T for just safety]
1. Chapter 1

**ONE TOUGH JOURNEY**

**AN: Hey everyone, this is my first story. So please be a little lenient on me. Read and review. Suggestions are welcome. If I make any grammatical/ spelling errors please tell.**

**About the pairing: Sorry everyone but I have decided the pairing and you'll get to know as you read the chapter.**

**One more thing: As you read this chapter, you might feel it's one of the same usual stories. But I'll confirm you that it isn't. Still if you don't want to read, it's your choice. You'll be missing something different.**

**Okay… Now let's start with the story.**

**Enjoy!**

**CHAPTER 1**

Look, I never wished for a life like this, okay? Being a Half-Blood, I knew life was tough! I have experienced it loads of times. Being in the verge of death and stuff. Yup, so I had accepted my life being a half-blood, a demigod, a spawn of the gods, being thrown into a prophecy, a war and many other dangerous things...

"PERSEUS!", Lady Artemis shouted. "What in the world are you doing? Sitting and watching a movie? Help us! NOW!"

Taking Riptide and Hurricane out of my pocket, I rushed to fight the Cyclopes while the hunters charged towards the hellhounds. As I went to attack, I summoned the water from the stream and used it to keep the Cyclopes in position. I slashed through the first one golden dust immediately scattered on the ground, and on me. By that time, I had already sent the last Cyclopes to Tartarus, I suddenly heard Thalia give out an agonizing screech. I immediately ran to the hunters.

As I reached the spot, I saw the hunters in one corner, in a shield like formation. They were protecting something or someone. Instantaneously, I ran to help. I took my bow and targeted the 3 huge hellhounds to distract them. I used my water powers and created a dome around the hunters to protect them.

The 3 humongous hellhounds charged at me at the same time, but I was ready. I put my bow back into its watch form, took Riptide and Hurricane and slashed through 2 of the smaller ones at the same time. The larger one being a bit smarter dodged my attacks.

"Simple doesn't work on you, huh?", I asked with a wicked grin on my face. Without wasting another second, I slid below the hellhound and stabbed it from the back. But unluckily, before my sword hit it, it had turned round and bit my hand. Blood started dripping from my hand. After it turned to dust, I fell on my knees with pain as its tooth had actually gotten stuck in my bone.

I gritted my teeth and pulled the hellhound's tooth out. Soon as the tooth was out, blood flowed out profusely. Nonetheless I used the water to heal myself as much as i could. i had rested enough. I got up and went to the hunters.

No sooner did I reach the hunters' area than I saw Phoebe and Erica, a daughter of Demeter, running around in tension. I even heard sobs. Then suddenly Phoebe fell to her knees, put her face in her hands and cried aloud saying, "No! I can't find the nectar or ambrosia ". I had never seen her cry like that. Never! Not even when Lady Artemis was captured. Not even when Zoë died (though she was depressed).

Without wasting a second, I rushed toward her, got her up and asked her what was happening. She pulled me to the medical tent. As I entered, I saw everyone gazing at 2 beings with tears. I followed their gaze and immediately gasped. It was a dreadful sight!

One side, Lady Artemis lay unconscious and the other side I saw Thalia's right leg wasn't in proper structure, her bone was sticking out and her leg was bleeding so badly that she was totally pale. I ran and seated myself beside her and shouted at Emily, a daughter of Apollo, "What just happened? Why aren't you doing anything? Answer me now!".

She had fallen to her knees crying beside Thalia. Between the sobs, she answered softly, "Thalia had herself gone to kill the leader hellhound while we all protected Lady Artemis, who had been knocked off by three hellhounds. After a few minutes, we heard her screams and we immediately ran to her and saw that the hellhound was chewing her leg, so all of us shot an arrow at it and it turned to dust. Immediately, we got her here, back to the medical tent but here we realized that all our nectar and ambrosia were missing".

"So?", I questioned raising my voice, "Can't you just do something else? Like get some medical plant from the forest and temporarily heal her to some extent? For Gods' sake, you all are the hunters of Artemis! You should have some knowledge of such stuff! Just do something!". I was infuriated!

This time, she just nodded and Atlanta replied, "Just because we are the hunters of Artemis doesn't mean we know every plant in the forest. Our information is limited on the herbal plants in this forest". No sooner had she finished her sentence than I heard Natalie, a daughter of Hades (also a newly joint hunter) scream out, "Oh no!"

As if speaking her mind, Emily said, "She has lost too much blood. She only has a few minutes left. We can't save her".

**AN: Ahhh….! First chapter's over. And I know that you all have a lot of questions on your mind. But I swear that they'll be answered in the coming chapters. Still, feel free to ask your questions. And don't worry; my chapters will get longer, at least a bit.**

**So until next time….**

**Yours truly,**

**Nik1627.**


	2. Chapter 2

**AN: Hey I'm back. Sorry but this chapter is also pretty short coz I was pretty busy for the week. Read and review. Suggestions are totally welcome. Tell my if there are and spelling or grammatical errors.**

**DISCLAIMER: I neither own Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor Heroes of Olympus series.**

**Okay, now for the chapter….**

**CHAPTER 2**

Hearing what Emily said, I was panicking! I couldn't lose another person. Not again. Not after…

Immediately, I snapped back to reality and decided to try something new, something I hadn't tried on anyone but me. "Emily, step away", I said calming myself. She looked at me in shock, but immediately stepped away. After a few seconds of controlling my anxiety, I put both my palms very close to Thalia's wound, closed my eyes and used all my strength to summon the water to her leg. I had always imagined the water would heal her wound the way It healed mine. Slowly, after finishing the whole process, I opened my eyes. I was shocked at the sight I saw. It worked! Thalia's wound had completely healed, at least from outside and her skin color also was pretty much back to normal. Her breath was still strained but truly better than before. I turned up to see my fellow companions, the hunters. They were staring at me with utter shock. I tried to open my mouth to tell them to put Thalia on a bed. But unfortunately I had used up all my strength in healing Thalia. So, my vision suddenly blurred and as I fell, I heard someone scream my name. By the time I tried to react, I was unconscious.

**Line break...**

'No! No! No! Not again! Don't leave me. Please don't. All of you! Please!'

I ran in the direction I had seen them. I ran and ran and ran. I couldn't give up. I had to get them back. At any cost. I would even give up my life for them to return. I searched all around but I couldn't find them anywhere. I can't give up. I have to look for them. I had promised myself that I would keep them safe. But as you can see I truly have failed.

I suddenly saw the letter in my hand. Again. Tears rolled down my cheeks and I crumbled it and threw it. "I'm going to take revenge for what you did. I'll kill you. I'll give you an equally tortured and painful death", I cursed at the top of my voice. Suddenly I heard them scream in pain, calling my name, asking me to help them. All of them. I screamed back their names and went to look for them by running along the direction from where I heard their voices. I had really failed this time. But I just couldn't give up. I kept calling for them.

Then out of nowhere, someone electrocuted me. i woke up with a jerk. I jolted upright, drenched in my own sweat. Within a few seconds I felt someone hugging me but i was dazed and my mind was still thinking about 'them', their yelps of pain calling for me to save them and here I was, even after three years, just searching for them, having no clue of where they were. I had terribly failed them. The taste of guilt is bitter. I was and still am too weak to save them. I'm useless. I'm….

I was brought back to my senses by Thalia who had yet again electrocuted me. I turned to where she was sitting. She was screaming her head off, but I knew she was doing this as she was worried for me. "Percy! What happened?! You were screaming and profusely sweating. I tried waking you up but you weren't getting up at all. I had to electrocute you around ten times before you became fully conscious. What happened, Kelp Head?" she finally ended with a worried tone. Since I hadn't yet responded, and I was still much disoriented, she again shook me calling," Percy? Perce? Per-"

I suddenly caught hold of her to hug her and cried on her shoulder. She let me and stroked my back. I cried until my tear glands were out of tears. Then, for a few minutes, I hugged her in silence and she hugged me back, tightening her grip on me and still stroking my back. I took this time to calm myself down. After I thought I was alright, I slowly pulled away and looked at her. I saw that her eyes also were puffed up and red. She had also been crying. Why wouldn't she? She was hurt too as she had lost the ones close to her, just like me. And the worst part was that l made her more depressed by breaking down in front of her. She stayed silent the whole time, so I deduced that she wanted me to speak first. So I spoke, "Sorry! It…", but she cut me off by saying," it's okay, Perce. No need to apologize. I understand. You had to let out all your pain and guilt, so you cried. It's okay Kelp Head. It's okay".

I didn't know what to say, so I looked down and stared at my hands. I realized that someone had covered up my wound of the hell-hound bite. There was silence again between us for some time. This time Thalia broke the silence by asking, "Do you want to share your dream with me Perce?". I wanted to say no but something made me tell her everything. When I finished telling her about my dream, she just thanked me for letting her know. "Oh Kelp Head!" was all she said before she started to sob on my shoulder. Again, I felt my vision blur as my eyes filled with tears. I was about to break down again, the lump in my throat was forming, but suddenly I felt someone's hand on my other shoulder.

I turned around and saw Lady Artemis. I and Thalia broke away and I was about to stand up and bow to her, but she shook her head saying, "Perseus, it is okay. You neither have to blame yourself for everything that has happened nor hide your feelings from any of us. We all are there for you". "Yes, Milady is right Perseus", Phoebe continued. I saw that the others nod their heads and smile as well. Before I knew it, I was bear hugged by the rest of the hunters. I just, simply hugged them back letting my tears pour out.

**To be continued...**

**AN: Follows, Favs and Reviews are appreciated.**

**Yours truly,**

**Nik1627**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**AN: Hey there! Sorry I'm late. I was a bit busy. **

**DISCLAIMER: I neither own Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor Heroes of Olympus series.**

**Okay so here's the chapter…**

The sun had set long back. The sky was dark along with the moon also being pretty dull and no stars to be seen. The surroundings were dead quite other than the hooting of the owl once in a while. The silence and the dull surroundings suited my mod though. The movement of the stream kept me in control.

The hunters were asleep in their tents by the stream while I lay in the forest on one of the pine tree branches. As I stared into the nothingness, I thought of the dream I had had earlier today. It wasn't like the first dream I had about three years ago. But it was that the dreams had stopped coming I the past one month, probably because I was dead tired every day, but still I truly couldn't confirm that because nothing could usually stop my dreams from occurring every night. But after I had this dream today, I couldn't keep my sadness and pain inside me anymore. So I poured it out after three years of hiding it.

Whatever I do, I still can't forgive myself for what had happened that time. I can't forgive myself because I didn't keep my promise to protect them from any danger. I can't forgive myself 'cause I was overconfident and thought I was strong enough. But the reality was that I was too weak, even after being in two great wars in my life.

The whole day today, I had been given an off so that I could rest even though I had begged Lady Artemis for letting me do my daily work. I wanted to distract myself this until we went back to our searched. But being free the whole day, and without having a single attack after yesterday, the thought and the memories just swirled around me. Though I had been staying with the hunters and continued to search for them, I hadn't been successful in even finding out a single clue about them after the letter I had gotten when they had been kidnapped.

For the first six months of them being missing, I had literally gone hay-wires. I had kept blabbering about them all the time. I had rarely slept. I took blackjack and went all over New York and till California. I ad rarely eaten anything and slashed each and every monster I had encountered. The rest of the time, I had just stayed alone in some dark corner and cried.

Then, the Olympians, taking pity on me, had called me to Olympus so as to help me in order to assign Lady Artemis and the hunt also to search for them. But then suddenly, Lord Zeus told me to accompany the hunters as their Guardian and as you all might have guessed, they argued. Zeus pointed out the fact about the increase in monsters after the II Giant War. As they fought, I silently stood next to my father, the Lord of the Seas, Poseidon.

My Father lay in his throne, sadly staring into nothingness, not able to control his sadness, though he was known for his patience, goofiness and also to be able to control his emotions. And this was due to my fault as I hadn't been able to protect them due to which they had been kidnapped and taken somewhere even Olympians had no clue about. He looked a thousand years older with his dull grey hair and grey-green eyes. I couldn't see him like this anymore and so I turned to my right and spotted the one person who reminded me so much of my failure of not being able to save my loved ones. Seeing her brought back the painful memories. My heart hurt. I clutched my chest not being able to bear the pain and swayed to and fro.

Instantly I turned away, trying to concentrate on something else, like the fight between Lord Zeus and Lady Artemis. But the pain in my heart didn't allow me to do so. Therefore I tried to stay as still and unnoticeable as possible. But one pair of orange eyes had spotted my pain and had slowly come and kept her hand on my shoulder. The touch of Lady Hestia's hand calmed me down as she was the goddess of hope and had given me some hope on finding them again.

I looked at her and gave her a smile. She replied me back the smile but I could see the pity in her eyes for me. As I turned around to see the other Olympians, I saw that no one had noticed but the argument was finally getting to an end. Zeus had finally won due to which he had a mischievous grin on his face. They both went back to their thrones to continue the meeting. Therefore, Lady Hestia had taking off her hand from my shoulder, so as to return to her throne. This made me sad but I hid it before anyone had seen. And everyone's eyes were back on me.

Lord Zeus spoke, "Perseus Jackson, the final decision has been made and you are going to go with the Hunters as their new Guardian. Therefore, I would also like to offer you immortality at like the hunters. Do you accept?"

I hesitated on how to put forth my answer but I had to do it. "No, Lord Zeus. I'm sorry, but I do not want immortality, not even partial immortality." Soon as I finished, I closed my eyes thinking about her. I couldn't betray them. I had to save them and then wanted to stay with them till I finally closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes again, I saw different expressions on each God's face. Zeus was angry; Dionysus, Ares and Artemis were surprised; Aphrodite was upset, probably because she lost the chance of being able to influence my life for eternity; while the rest like Apollo, Hermes, Hades, Hestia, and Hera passed me sympathetic looks. I again felt the pain rising in me but luckily Lady Hestia placed her hand back on my shoulders, calming me down.

To break the eerie silence and to change the mood of everybody in the Throne room, Lord Zeus spoke again, "Very well. As you decided to not accept partiality as well, I'd like to grant you my blessing from which when you will be able to control the winds just like my children to fly. Only fly. That's it. You will not be able to do anything else but this. And since I would be granting you these powers I am obviously granting you my permission to be able to travel in my domain safely. Thunder rumbled in the sky as Zeus finished what he had to say. Percy was too shocked to digest what Lord Zeus had just said. As I turned around, I saw that the Gods were also equally shocked. I turned back to where Lord Zeus' throne was and saw him standing ready to bless me.

He spoke a few incantations in ancient Greek and then a sky blue light sprouted from his palm and hit my chest. The hit didn't feel like how a hit in the chest originally should have felt like. Instead it made me feel stronger. After the sky blue light diminished, I saw that Lord Zeus was sitting back in his throne. I bowed to Lord Zeus, thanking him.

Then suddenly Lady Artemis sprung out of her throne screaming at me in Thalia's voice, "Percy! Percy! Kelp Head! Do you want me to electrocute you again?"

**R & R**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**AN: Hey there, thank you so much everybody for adding my story to your alert and favorite list. Review please, because I want to know your thoughts and opinions too.**

**DISCLAIMER: I neither own Percy Jackson and the Olympians nor Heroes of Olympus series. But I totally wish I did!**

**Enjoy!**

I woke up with Thalia slapping my face with one hand and holding my collar with the other and shaking me so as to wake me up. As soon as she saw that I was awake, she punched me hard in my stomach. "Ouch what was that for?" I questioned her. Her punch had hardly hurt me to tell the truth. But who wanted want to have some fun? "You, Kelp Head, scared all of us out of our minds. We have been searching for you since morning" she replied. "Morning?" I asked her in confusion. Then I turned to see the sky and realized it was already passed noon. "Oops! Sorry!" I added with a goofy smile on my face.

But my goofy smile didn't convince because she screamed out saying, "Sorry? Is that what you can say after what you did? Upon the fact that you were on the topmost branch asleep when I spotted you? I had been trying to wake you up for more than fifteen minutes. Lucky that you woke up before I electrocuted you for the third time because you were saved from have your hair stand up for a whole week. You should have had some decency of informing someone that you were going to go and sleep on the topmost branch of one of the tallest trees in the forest. You just don't understand how worried sick we all were for you. I thought I had lost my brother too… again", with that she broke down and started crying on my chest. I just let her cry as I slowly patted her.

I felt sad that Thalia, one of my best friends, my sister, one of the few people to be able to truly understand me and also one of the toughest person I had meet was also broken. I couldn't believe that this incident had melted and broken even the toughest of the people, I knew. Thalia was like an elder sister to me, though I had never told her this (and also to exclude the fact that she was still sixteen while I am twenty-one). She was my inspiration for being tough for the happiness of you loved ones. But now, I wasn't able to register the fact that the broken person in front of me was The Thalia Grace, the Lieutenant of Artemis herself.

After sometime, she slowly pulled away, still sitting on my lap as we were on a branch. Softly, in a sad tone, she requested me, "Please, Kelp Head, don't ever do this to me ever again. Please." "Thalia," I said hands in mine, "Don't worry. I promise, I won't do this again. I'm so sorry. I didn't realize when I fell asleep." "It's okay Percy," she replied, still in a sad tone. We remained silent for the next few minutes. So I used this time to wonder how I had all of a sudden fallen asleep. Then, Thalia cut me off from my thoughts by commenting on herself, "Argh…! I look messy **(No pun intended people) **and like one of those Aphrodite girls." I laughed at her but deep down I wondered how she always managed to hide her emotions so easily and how she loved to look like those freaky girls wearing three pairs of earrings and a dark freaky shirt. She wiped her tears and threatened me saying, "You better not tell anyone about this or else…" "Or else what?" I questioned her in a teasing manner so as to ease the atmosphere. "Or else I'll electrocute you on and on and on for a month so that you will never even think about telling anything to anyone," she replied. I gulped in a bit and said, "Ha! Ha! Pinecone face calm done, I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Okay now, let's leave. The others will be worried sick." Saying this, she summoned the winds and raised herself off my lap. As I saw the surroundings, Thalia commented, "Have you planned on staying her all day long? You better come fast, Kelp Head." As I summoned the winds and rose from the branch, I turned to see a fully petrified Thalia. She saw that I had risen up and immediately held my hand. I pressed her hand in a comforting manner and she relaxed a bit. Though Thalia had learnt how to fly, she still feared heights. That was her weakness all the time though she was a daughter of Zeus, the Lord of the Sky. Therefore for several years, she hadn't learnt how to fly but I had forced her to fly with me after I got the powers, obviously. So for the past three years, she had been flying but only at the times of danger or when I forced her to.

We slowly descended as the winds blew around us. No sooner had we landed than I heard Leah, daughter of Demeter, stare at me in both disbelief and relief. Then she called out for the others hunters informing I was found. Within seconds, everyone had arrived and had crushed me into a tight embrace. After what felt like hours, they pulled away. But suddenly Atlanta punched me in my stomach and I was like, "Ouch! What was that for, now?" "You, Fish brain, do you have any idea how long we have been searching for you? And what time it is right now? Do you realize how worried we all had been? Do…?

I cut her extremely long questioning session by saying, "Uhh… Sorry?!" Along with that I put up a puppy-dog face. But this didn't work on Atlanta, "Oh just shut up! Really? That puppy-dog face won't work on me. And you know what? Just because of your great disappearance, none of us even had our breakfast. You totally proved that you're a Kelp Head." But then, the fact that hadn't even eaten breakfast as they were worried for me triggered me. Immediately I went and hugged Atlanta saying, "Hey, I'm so sorry Atlanta. I'm sorry that all of you weren't able to eat breakfast. So, to correct my mistake, I'll cook for you all."

At this, she calmed down a bit and said, "You better, Fish brain" "Okay, so if everything is over, let's go. I'm dieing of starvation," Thalia interfered by changing the topic. On our way back, we hunted some animals for food. No sooner had we reached our camp than they pushed me into the cooking area and went to refresh and relax. In the past three years I had learnt many things from the hunters and one of the things was to cook. From the day I had started to stay with them, they had pushed me to do a lot of work which took all day long and I was thankful to them for that as it distracted me from my usual thoughts. I had learnt many things from the hunters, for instance cooking and archery, okay only a bit of archery, but I'm surely better than before though.

By the time I had finished cooking food, I could hear all the hunters already sitting and chatting in the dining tent. So I just took the food to the tent. As I entered the tent, Thalia said, "Finally, some food….." and snatched the food. But I didn't pay attention to her as my eyes searched for Lady Artemis as she was the only one missing. So I just turned to the food hogging hunters and questioned them, "Uh… Where's Lady Artemis?" Phoebe answered me this time, "Oh my Gods! You noticed now? Lady Artemis has gone for an emergency council meeting since morning." "Since morning? Then how come she hasn't returned yet?", as I said this, I sat thinking why was the council meeting so suddenly and for so long?!

**Dun! Dun! Dun!**


	5. AN

**Author's Note**

**Hey everyone, sorry to say this but I'll on pause both my stories for the whole October as I have my mid-terms round the corner, like Monday itself and also as the BoO is releasing. But it is releasing here on 22nd October and I'll have to wait till then. But you people enjoy and tell me how it was. Have a wonderful time reading BoO. Be back soon**.


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